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Tuesday, Jan 23, 2018 01:30 AM

Lions finish sixth in Rick Gosselin's special teams rankings

The Detroit Lions’ special teams were special again in the 2017 season.

The Lions backed up their No. 2 ranking in 2016 with a sixth-place finish in 2017 in a comprehensive rating system that is considered a primary standard for ranking overall performance of special teams.

Rookie All-Pro Jamal Agnew’s punt returns along with solid performances in the kicking game and coverage units led the Lions to their sixth-place ranking – by far the highest of any NFC North team.

Extra point percentage: 97.5 percent (40-41), seventh. The top six teams were 100 percent.

Opponent field-goal percentage: 79.3 percent (23-29), eighth. That is usually an indication of a strong rush, which forces missed kicks.

Takeaways: One, tied for eighth.

The Lions’ biggest decline from the 2016 season was in punting. That was caused in part by an offseason injury that caused regular punter Sam Martin to miss the first six games. The Lions used three punters in his absence, including kicker Matt Prater for part of one game.

As a team, the Lions were 25th in punting average (43.69), 27th in net average (39.3) and 23rd in punts inside the 20 (25).

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